Wilder Urged To Curb Growth Near The Bay

RICHMOND — Controlling growth along the Chesapeake Bay will be the critical issue during the Wilder administration, according to a top environmental advocate.

"If there's not some movement this year and the next few years on growth management issues, we'll be selling our future," Joseph H. Maroon, state executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, told reporters Friday.

Maroon said he was hopeful that the administration of Gov.-elect L. Douglas Wilder would provide the necessary leadership on the issue.

"We're very hopeful that the new administration will make its mark on the environment," Maroon said.

Even in a tight budget year, Maroon said that Wilder could make a big impact by implimenting the programs begun by Gov. Gerald L. Baliles.

"For the environment, a little money goes a long ways," he said. "If you spend $10 million on roads, it's like you dropped it on the way to the bank."

Maroon said the foundation was counting on assurances made by Wilder during the fall campaign, and by his transition team since his victory, that he would support three pieces of legislation to protect the bay from the potentially harmful effects of drilling for oil and natural gas.

The group proposes a ban on drilling on sensitive lands near waterways; a ban on so-called slant, or horizontal, drilling, which involves drilling for oil under the bay from an on-shore starting point; and a requirement that an environmental assessment be made before drilling permits are granted in other areas of eastern Virginia.

The foundation wants more money to be given to local governments to help them deal with the complicated requirements of the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. Localities are being required to map environmentally-sensitive areas in their jurisdictions, a time-consuming and sometimes expensive process.

The group also supports a concept called transferrable development rights as a way to help preserve environmentally sensitive land from development.

This is how the concept works: A developer whose land is identified for preservation by the state or a locality would be able to sell his right to build homes on that land. The purchaser - a second developer with another piece of land - would then be able to build as many homes on his own property as zoning allows, plus the number of homes that would have been allowed on the first piece of property.

There are two possible forms the legislation could take. Virginia Beach is working on a proposal that would affect that city only. Another proposal would allow any locality to set up its own system.

J.B. Hall, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Virginia, said his group opposes the idea. He said that selling away development rights forever is not something that can be taken lightly. The group also opposes allowing each locality to set up its own system.

"If you allow every locality to write their own, you'll have 100 different" regulations, he said.